“It would be wrong and insensitive for the Duterte administration to claim sole credit for the return of the bells and insist that this was the result of its so-called independent foreign policy,” giit ni Hontiveros.

“It was the people’s strong sense of history and justice that led to the return of the bells not President Rodrigo Duterte’s defeatist foreign policy which has only managed to surrender our sovereignty and territory in the West Philippine Sea,” dagdag nito.

“With the return of the bells, it is my hope that they will toll once again, this time in support of democracy and against an aspiring tyrant who has turned the entire country into a “modern howling wilderness” marked by unabated killings and human rights abuses,” ani Hontiveros.